You will learn the Natural Step framework’s creative, out-of-the-box, cost-effective approach and how to apply it. Small and large businesses, communities, government agencies, academic and religious institutions, hospitals, nonprofits and individuals are using it to build safer, healthier environments, save money, improve performance, encourage innovative thinking, attract and retain employees, create jobs, obtain funding, gain strategic position, meet ISO 14000, eliminate regulatory burdens, build teams, address divisive issues and create positive, shared solutions, while becoming environmentally and socially responsible. The NS framework gives hope and opens up a new world beyond pollution prevention, waste reduction and recycling.

1. More than 70 municipalities, including rural towns and cities like Stockholm, Santa Monica, Seattle, and Whistler, as well as hospitals (Ridgeview Medical Center, Waconia, MN), churches (St. Joan of Arc Church, Minneapolis), and schools such as the University of Texas, Houston.
2. Hundreds of thousands of young people in schools and communities through computer networks, TV programs, and a Youth Parliament.
3. Thousands of organic and conventional farmers whose NS consensus process helped shift toward a sustainable agriculture, saving money and dramatically reducing pesticide use.
4. A range of 19 professional groups, from doctors and lawyers to architects and consultants.
5. More than 70 corporations, including Starbucks, Home Depot, Nike, CH2M Hill Engineering, Bank of America, Collins Pine, the world’s largest manufacturers of appliances (Electrolux), furniture (IKEA) and commercial floor coverings (Interface), and Sweden’s three major supermarket chains, biggest oil company, largest hotel chain and McDonalds.

As a scientist at Sweden’s leading cancer research institute, physician Dr. Karl-Henrik Robert was concerned that increasing cancer rates, especially among young children such as those he was treating, were tied to environmental factors. He was frustrated by the lack of agreement among scientists about the cause or what to do, so he began a consensus process which resulted in 50 leading Swedish scientists agreeing on the underlying principles needed for sustainability.

This information was then shared with major corporations who recognized the need for action. They supported the sending of an audiocassette and brochure to every home and school in Sweden--4.3 million. Leading artists, musicians and scientists produced a national TV special in 1989 to launch an educational campaign and TNS as a nonprofit backed by the King of Sweden.

Economist, ecologist, and author Terry Gips is one of the first TNS-US framework trainers and President of Sustainability Associates, a Minneapolis environmental consulting firm. Terry wrote Breaking the Pesticide Habit and has served as a White House and Congressional aide, co-founder of the Sacramento Community Garden Program, President of the Alliance for Sustainability, Cargill economist, and Aveda Corporation Director of Sustainability.